Aviator wins top gong

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Geoffrey Rush poses with the award he won for best actor in a mini-series or television movie.Photo: AP

The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's big-budget film about
the early life of troubled billionaire Howard Hughes, won the
coveted 2005 Golden Globe for best dramatic film today.

The win was some compensation for Scorsese who had lost out in the
best director category earlier in the evening to Clint
Eastwood.

The star of the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio, won the best actor in a
drama award.

The blockbuster, also starring Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale,
Alec Baldwin and Jude Law, came into the evening with a total of
six nominations.

The other nominees for best drama were Closer, Finding
Neverland, Kinsey, Hotel Rwanda and
Million Dollar Baby.

The bitter-sweet road movie Sideways won the 2005
Golden Globe Award for best musical or comedy film.

The award was accepted by producer Michael London, who paid tribute
to the film's ensemble cast and its "champion" director Alexander
Payne, who had won a best screenplay Globe earlier in the
evening.

Sideways, which follows two old friends on a wine-tasting
tour through the vineyards of California, had been the leading
nominee coming into the evening with seven nods.

It ended with three Globes, including one for best score.

Other contenders for the best drama award were Closer,
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The
Incredibles, The Phantom of the Opera and
Ray.

Leonardo DiCaprio won the best actor in a drama for his role as
the troubled billionaire Howard Hughes in Martin Scorcese's The
Aviator.

Accepting his award, DiCaprio attributed the success of his
performance to Scorcese, whom he described as "one of the greatest
contributors to world cinema of our time".

DiCaprio snatched the Globe from Javier Bardem, who had been widely
tipped to take the award for his wrenching portrayal of a
paraplegic battling to end his life in the Spanish-language film
The Sea Inside.

Other nominees were Johnny Depp, who played Peter Pan author J M
Barrie in Finding Neverland, Don Cheadle for Hotel
Rwanda and Liam Neeson for Kinsey.

Hilary Swank won the best actress in a drama Golden Globe Award
here for her role as a female boxer in Clint Eastwood's Million
Dollar Baby.

"I want to thank all the women in the movie who took those
amazing knockouts to make me look such a champ," a grinning Swank
said as she accepted the award.

Annette Bening accepts the award for best actress in a musical or comedy.Photo:AP

The actress also had warm words for her co-star Morgan Freeman
who she described as "the definition of grace" and Eastwood, who
also starred in the film.

"You have such a huge heart," she told Eastwood, who earlier
picked up the best director Globe, "and you just envelop all the
people around you with it".

The other nominees for the award were Scarlett Johansson for
A Love Song for Bobby Long, Nicole Kidman for
Birth, Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake and Uma
Thurman for Kill Bill - Vol 2.

Jamie Foxx scooped up the Golden Globe for best actor in a
musical or comedy, for his portrayal of music legend Ray Charles in
the biopic Ray.

"I am having the ride of my life right now," said an emotional
Foxx, who had received a record three Globe nominations on the
night.

"I wish I could take what I'm feeling right now and put it in
the water system so that everybody could drink it. We'd all love
each other a whole lot more I'm telling you," he said.

Foxx had lost in his two other nominated categories, to Clive
Owen for supporting actor in a drama movie and to Geoffrey Rush for
actor in a TV movie or miniseries.

The other best actor nominees were Jim Carrey for Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Paul Giamatti for
Sideways, Kevin Kline for De-Lovely and Kevin
Spacey for Beyond the Sea.

Australian actor Geoffrey Rush won the award for best actor in a
TV mini-series or movie for his role in The Life and Death of
Peter Sellers.

Other winners at the Globes award ceremony were Annette Bening
for her role in Being Julia and Clive Owen and Natalie
Portman of the sex drama Closer, boosting their prospects
for the upcoming Academy Awards.

Bening won for best actress in a movie musical or comedy,
playing an ageing stage diva in 1930s London who plots gleeful
revenge against the men in her life.

Backstage, Bening said that while Hollywood economics is geared
toward roles for younger actresses, she said there are filmmakers
eager to present tales of older women.

"I think there's no question that sexism exists, but I think
that as long as people are willing to fight and create interesting
stories that involve women of all different ages, then the movies
will get made," Bening said.

Portman's and Owen's wins as supporting players in a film were
something of a surprise, with contenders such as Morgan Freeman for
Million Dollar Baby and Blanchett for The Aviator
considered more likely favourites beforehand.

The oddball romance Sideways, the Howard Hughes epic
The Aviator and the boxing drama Million Dollar
Baby were among key contenders at the Globes ceremony, still
underway.

A major celebrity party in their own right, the Globes serve as
the most prominent ceremony in Hollywood's pre-game show leading up
to the Academy Awards on Feb. 27.

The Globes are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association, whose small membership of about 90 people pales
compared to the nearly 6,000 film professionals eligible to vote
for the Oscars.

Yet the Globes historically serve as a solid forecast that helps
set the odds for subsequent film honours.

All four of last year's Oscar winners for acting - Sean Penn,
Charlize Theron, Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger - earned Golden
Globes first. Best-picture champ The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King and its director, Peter Jackson, also
preceded their Oscar triumphs with Globe wins.